basser9

What type of beckett skimmer do you have i have run different becketts on the dc pumps. Only the really big ones or duals need a high pressure pump and only then if you have a massive system. Becketts only need 600 to 1200 gph at the nozzle to run good. The new dc pump will run almost all becketts well. I have run everything from a etss 1000 modded to a small diy with dcpumps and my favorite pump for mid to small ones is a deep blue internal.

A long tank is a great candidate for a led fixture on a light mover. The cheap chain driven ones are the best as they move the light at a very slow pace. 100.00 FOR THE MOVER.......240 FOR 2 D120. A long strip of blue leds on a alum tube from HD will light the entire tank........not needed but nice. Cheap to run and all corals get great coverage.

TL does and its a great place ......best prices on fish and equipment that i can find ....very old school.

Bleach ...then LC. Acid will strip some rock down pretty bad and make it brittle but if your rock is still nasty after the bleach then a acid bath is in order.

I use a peristaltic pump reefdosing.com they are just kangeroo med pumps you can get a med pump on ebay for under 100.00. One thing you need to do is keep the LC mixed up or it settles i use a 5 gallon bucket with a pump inside. Some calcium reactors may pose a problem because where the LC enters it will form deposits my MTC enters at the top not at the pump which makes it perfect. Any duel reactor will work great just drill a inlet on top of the first reactor and you are good to go.

I will post in a little bit my setup. I have a large MTC calcium reactor setup to run LC. First chamber has bioballs for the precipitate to settle on and the 2nd reactor has very tightly packed floss. I have the effluent running thru a .5 micron bag. 2 months running and nothing has made it to the .5 micron bag the tightly packed floss works great and it appears that most of the precipitate is being contained in the first chamber. I tried a single pass reactor made from a 5 gallon bucket it did not work as i had hoped the recir reactor appears to be the way to go.

There is a difference between running a very low sps only system and a mixed reef. You are asking for a tank wipeout when you run very high levels of po/nitrates or doc. Its is possible to get away with very high nutrients levels but not wise. I had a couple of nice mixed reefs 25 years ago before we could even test for po or nitrate. But both setups over a couple of years hit a wall for the sps and started to go down hill. You dont have to get to .03 for po but letting any reef get over 1 is not wise. Same for nitrates running at 60 is possible i have done it but not wise get it to 10 fine.

Always ship fed ex and pk up at one of there places in the morn....... I have a mailman that is so bad he cant even go 1 week without giving me the neighbors mail. He old and completely unable to do his job it got so bad at christmas last year they gave him a helper and we still got the mail late at night. Me and my neighbers have tried to find someone in charge to complain to and it appears next to impossible. This is my USPS it is a nightmare........There overnight would scare me.

Here is one of many led fixtures i have built a wamas person has it now. Looking at this fixture you have no way to tell what size tank to use it on to support sps. There are no optics .......only a par meter will tell you unless you like to kill a bunch of corals to find out. VIVID aquariums tank with half leds and mh is a great place to compare the 2 lights.......they use a par meter........why......because only a par meter works.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/2/aafeature Heres a great study done with leds and different par if you notice the only way to do this study is with a par meter. As anybody with a set of eyeballs can see the higher the par the greater the growth....go figure. There have been a ton of studies on reef corals and par all these studies have used a par meter of some sort because par is the only way to measure light to your corals. If you look closely at this study the leds where just blue/rb and white which worked fine for all those corals in the study now if you look a par of 300 was much better then a par of 50 so how do you set up your leds to hit 300 and not 50 unless you have a par meter. The most important tool i have is a par meter.......

I have had one for as long as i can remember and as a reefer who had every light there ever was from mercury vapor to regular 40 watt daylight tubes to every type of mh reflecters and at least a dozen diy led builds i think its silly to even suggest there lack of value. Certain sps need at least 400 par to color up [purple monster] and most monti s have issues when exposed to 500 par and above. You can not look at any light and judge its par ......par meters are our xrays. When you have a led fixture that has a small number of leds with optics you are creating a false measurement any fixture with a cluster will give you a normal reading that is the same as mh readings. I can not imagine not having my par meter it has been the most important tool i have.......period.

Heres how you cut the packets.

http://coralux.net/ Nice new controller on this site with ldd boards. Big upgrade over the boostled crap.

A mistake alot of people make is not getting the larger pump as a return and using it on a lower setting. Getting the large pump and running at a low setting keeps the powerpack cool and the noise level is dead silent at the lower power levels. I prefer the 1st gen pumps i use the speedwave which is around for 200.00.......used at half power you will think it is off its so quit.

The power pack that comes with all the DC pumps is not waterproof just keep it away from moisture and you are fine. Love my SPEEDWAVE the best pump i have every owned. Checked the box there is a ul mark and a ul on the powerpack. The powerpack looks to be ul cert for standard computer stuff not aquarium use........I could care less but it appears to me there a good chance all the knockoffs are like this. Any pump in the water needs a gfci i dont trust any pump i have had alot of bad maxi-jets ....water and pumps dont mix well.

A deep blue triton 5 pump is a perfect pump for that skimmer runs around 100.00 and will pull under 40 watts . A speedwave/dc10000 is a great pump also and can be found for 200.00 and running it on a low setting for your skimmer will keep heat low on the power pack which helps . The big speedwave is completely silent when run on its lower settings mine has been running perfect for 9 months. I have 2 db triton 5 pumps that are not as silent as the speedwave but are great pumps i have run them on skimmers[aquac 1000/120 ..etss 1000] and as return pumps and they pull very low power for there performance.

Your setup should have a 1 inch nozzle upgrade. Its a special larger spray nozzle made for greg carroll that AQUA C makes. Send him a email i think i paid 10.00 for one. A 1000/2000 or 400 should have one in my experience. The hose end on a regular is 3/4 inch the hose end on the upgrade is 1 inch.

Do you have the 1inch nozzle if not you should get a few. A mag 24 will allow you to run the 400 with a very high water level if you like. Try running it 2 inches from the cup you will be surprised how it functions at that water level.......very stable foam head.

Any overseas offer on CL is a scam just delete any offers. I rent out a basement apartment and use CL at least a 3rd of the inquiries are scammers mainly from africa or Europe.

They are all the same pump with some different fitting pieces. Shop around for price they are all basically the same.

Get the big pump even if you think you dont need it. It is a very quit pump if ran on the lower settings and has a small whine on its highest setting. A issue that i see is the power supply gets very hot on its highest setting and long term i think there is some concern. Get a dc10000 and run it on its lower settings and you have the best pump out there if you need to run it on high i would get a extra power supply. The dc10000 or its copycats are around for 200.00 shipped a great price.

Look on fishstreet in there uk section there price for a pump is sick.......great for a spare pump as the power supply is 220 just as a spare pump/controller its worth it.

The red /brown ones are the best ones for a reef and get them small unless you have large BUBBLE ALGEA then you need a big one. Big ones are super strong and like to overturn frags and small rocks but they can eat very large bubble algea.

Raise the water level 2 inches below the cup usually right at the AQUA-C letters. The sweet spot is within a inch of this spot depending on the pump. Try it it works great at that spot. I have run every AQUA-C but a 400 and they all work great higher up. I was just running a AQUA-C 1000 on a DEEP BLUE that only pulled 35 watts and set up the water level at the AQUA-C letters which is about 2 inches from the cup. Ran with this combo it was a super stable skimmer that never shut down even with any feedings /hand in water .....etc.

The mistake people make with a aqua-c is that it is 2 completly different skimmers based on the water level. If you run it at the base of the tower like the manufacturer and most people run it the skimmer is just like a etss it works only well on very heavy fish an coral loaded tanks. It will stop working all the time on a normal reef tank but you can set it up with a high water level just below the cup this completely changes how it functions. This produces a solid foam head that is very stable very similar to a etss beckett mode there is no more shutting down with feedings ....etc.